Critics raise questions over abrupt delay of ‘Obamacare’ mandate

The Obama administration’s decision to delay the new health care law’s “employer mandate” after business owners complained about its complexity has critics asking why, a few days prior, the White House would green-light a rule it sees as a burden on religious employers who do provide health insurance.

A senior White House adviser and the Treasury Department last week quietly announced the administration would put off, until 2015, a part of the Affordable Care Act that requires businesses with more than 50 workers to offer insurance to all full-time employees, or else pay a fine of $2,000 to $3,000 per worker.

The sudden announcement arrived four days after the Department of Health and Human Services announced it would not significantly alter a rule that requires most employers to insure contraceptives.

“It had absolutely everything to do with the fact 2014 is a big election year,” said Ashley McGuire, senior fellow at the Catholic Association.

Rep. John Fleming, Louisiana Republican, said the White House knew the employer mandate “would hurt them, politically,” as businesses aired their grievances and threatened to move full-time workers to part-time status to stay under the 50-employee threshold that triggers the mandate.

Mrs. Black and Mr. Fleming are among the conservative lawmakers who introduced legislation on Capitol Hill that would allow religious objectors to be exempt from the contraception mandate. Dozens of faith-based nonprofits and religiously devout owners of corporations have sued over the mandate, which may be headed for the Supreme Court.

America’s bishops and other religious leaders say HHS’ accommodation for faith-based nonprofits, such as hospitals and universities, does not go far enough in divorcing the institutions from health plans that cover contraception.

Critics of the mandate particularly object to insuring emergency contraceptives taken after sex, arguing drugs like Plan B and Ella may prevent implantation of a fertilized egg and amount to abortion.

They said it is ironic that the White House would burden religious employers that already offer health coverage while delaying the mandate on employers that might be trying to trim their payrolls so they don’t have to provide health benefits.

“That just adds insult to injury,” Ms. McGuire said.

In its announcement, the White House said it was simply responding to numerous business owners’ concerns about the employer mandate.

Democrats and supporters of the law say it is more important to implement the reform correctly than quickly, and accused GOP lawmakers of obfuscating the law’s intent and causing hiccups in implementation.